Officer, official plead guilty

Sue Thackeray

Published 7:00 pm, Monday, September 9, 2002

A former Magnolia police officer and a former city councilman charged with furnishing alcohol to minors pleaded guilty and accepted deferred adjudication Sept. 3 in Montgomery County Court-at-Law No. 2.

Former City Councilman Dennis Michael Magee pleaded guilty to two counts of furnishing alcohol to a minor, while former police officer Ryan Joseph Clayden pleaded guilty to one count of furnishing alcohol to a minor, a class B misdemeanor. Both men were given deferred adjudication, according to Assistant District Attorney Greg Gaines.

Clayden and Magee were ordered to pay $1,000 fines plus court costs and serve 60 hours of community service. Magee will serve two years of community supervision, and Clayden was given 18 months of community supervision, Gaines said.

Clayden maintained his innocence Sept. 4 when he spoke to The Courier.

"I've been fighting it (the charge) for almost a year and a half," he said. "Being a misdemeanor, I can't afford to fight it anymore. In my opinion, there was more of a political agenda behind this case than there was justice."

Clayden declined to go into any detail about the case saying he had to be careful what he said. Magee could not be contacted by The Courier.

As part of the deferred adjudication, both men were ordered to stay away from the two girls involved in the July 24, 2001, incident and their families. According to statements by the two teen-age girls, ages 15 and 17, who brought the charges, Magee and Clayden provided them with alcohol in Magee's vehicle and at his home.

"Dennis picked us up … and he had alcohol with him in his car. And basically, the first thing he did was hand it to my friend," said Jennifer Quintero.

She had been at the home of Jill Devaney when Magee picked them up, Quintero said.

Clayden was an officer with the Magnolia Police Department at the time of the offense and was suspended after the allegations were brought forward. After taking initial statements from the two teens, the Magnolia Police Department decided to turn over the investigation to the Montgomery County District Attorney's office.

Magee was serving his first term on the Magnolia City County in Position 3 at the time of the incident. He resigned his position on the council after the charges were made public in August 2001.

At the time of the incident, Magee was also a deputy constable with the Precinct 4 Harris County Constable's office. He was fired after he was caught planting evidence on a 13-year-old boy and falsifying the police report. A Harris County jury found Magee guilty of those charges in 2001, and he was sentenced to one year in jail.

Gaines said copies of the judgments will be sent to the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement Officer Standards and Education and the peace officer licenses of both men will be suspended. Magee's law enforcement officer's license has already been permanently revoked because of the felony conviction in Harris County. Clayden will be eligible to reapply for his license once he completes his community supervision term, according to Cynthia Martinez, TCLEOSE administrator.

If both men complete their community supervision and the other terms of the deferred adjudication, their records will be cleared and the charges dismissed, Gaines said.